First CSA pick-up

We had our first CSA food pick-up here on Tuesday!  CSA (community supported agriculture) is a great way to support organic farmers - members buy shares in advance of the season and make a commitment to pick up an allotment of produce each week.  They get to live along with the life of the farm, eating what's fresh, abundant and in season.  Learn more about CSA farms here. We are so pleased to be hosting our friend Angie's city member pick-up.  Her farm Fertile Ground CSA is a popular local organic farm, and her produce is outstanding!  The pick-up day becomes a social gathering for the neighbourhood, and also a chance for us to offer our wholegrain baked goods to members.  Our daughter decided to set up a drink stand too, testing out her customer service skills and sharing icy homemade maple-lemonade on our hot and sweltering first pick-up day.  What fun!

Neighbourhood Art Walk & Soap Making Classes this fall

We are excited to be taking part in the Central Art Walk later this fall.  It seems so far away to think of festivals in the fall, but the planning and organizing starts months ahead.  Look for it October 20-21 if you live in the area and want to experience a unique walking tour of numerous local artists and crafters living right in our neighbourhood!  Here at Little City Farm we'll have handmade soaps, artisan wood-fired bread, and another friend offering her gorgeous pottery.  More details to come later in the fall on this blog and our website.

Soap Making Classes - Here are a few of the latest soap photos using calendula, lavender and rosemary from our garden.  I love using herbs I've grown myself, and try to incorporate at least some herbs or herbal oils we've made into each batch for colour, fragrance, texture, and of course medicinal healing value.  The soaps are made from scratch using the traditional cold-process method and all natural ingredients, pure essential oils and organic herbs.  Although I long to make more soap right now, there's just not the time for it during the busy summer months (let alone offering workshops).  However, we'll be offering several soap classes again starting in September and the dates and registration will be posted on our website in a few weeks time. 

This weekend

This weekend:
~ hosted walking tour group during this weekend's neighbourhood Jane's Walk (talked on the theme of moving from an industrial focus to post-industrial sustainable neighbourhood)
~ baked wholegrain bread loaves in the outdoor wood-fired cob oven to share with the tour group
~ harvested first rhubarb from this spring's garden for batch of pies (to be sold at our seedling sale)
~ cleaned and organized garden tools, finally
~ took walks to watch the 6 new baby goslings that have hatched in a nearby storm water run-off pond

In celebration of neighbourhood potlucks

There are so many disheartening stories that make it into the daily news, that is is especially encouraging when you read such a positive one as this - the celebration of community through the simple act of hosting weekly neighbourhood potlucks - read more about the Wednesday night potlucks hosted by Al and Wendy here.

The great neighbourhood pumpkin patch

The first ever "great neighbourhood pumpkin patch" was held on our street tonight.  Inspired by the great  "pumpkin patches" that spring up in neighbourhoods in Toronto and Montreal (and last year uptown Waterloo), we spent a little time organizing for this same kind of event to take place in a nearby park.  The idea is simple: people bring their carved pumpkins to display in one large communal patch on the evening after Halloween, offering an opportunity to share creativity and simply give neighbours a chance to meet each other in an informal setting.  In Toronto many of the pumpkins on display have been grown in a community garden within the neighbourhood, which adds another layer of community involvement that we love.  On fairly short notice, and as a first time event, we think it was a grand success - there were nearly 50 pumpkins gathered and an estimated 75-80 adults and children mingling in the park.  We plan to do this again next year, and hope it can become an annual event that brings people from this neighbourhood together.

Summer solstice!

In celebration of summer's beginning...

today we had the first CSA pick-up with Fertile Ground CSA, just around the corner from our place.  It's a fabulous CSA (community supported agriculture) and such a great opportunity for folks in this neighbourhood to meet each other and share a common interest in supporting a local farm through purchasing beautiful top quality organic produce!  Tuesday afternoons always become a major social gathering over at the CSA pick up.  We are there each week with a baked goods table - we will feature various breads (wood-fired and otherwise) made with wholegrains and local organic flour.  Today's offerings were focaccia, broa (Portuguese cornbread), rustic apple-rhubarb tarts, spelt chocolate chip cookies, rhubarb pies, and multigrain flax sourdough breads. All sold out by 6:15 pm - long day, but so exciting!  Maya (my trusty helper) fell asleep 5 minutes after we walked home - she loves CSA days because of all the neighbourhood kids she gets to see - but was exhausted!

Call to neighbourhood artists!

Exciting news! There is a new walking studio & artist/crafter tour being organized for our neighbourhood. There are already two very successful studio tours in town, in the Frederick St & Mary-Allen neighbourhoods. This one hopes to capture that inbetween space, located centrally just on the cusp of Kitchener & Waterloo. It will encompass the streets bounded by Belmont to Weber, and Union to Victoria - a fairly large area, on both sides of King St.

The Central Art Walk...will be held Sat, Oct 25 from 10-4 pm, and hopes to attract interested painters, potters, jewelers, photographers, knitters, stained glass artists, woodworkers, etc who are interested in participating in this neighbourhood event. Artists would invite the public into their homes and studios to view and purchase art.

To sign up - if you want to be a vendor, or join in another open house in that area, contact: centralartwalk@rogers.com. Email name, address, and a short description of your art (or 1-2 photos). There will be a small fee to help with signs and promotion of this event.

The cut off date for entries is May 31!